RAPPER Snoop Dogg was recently censured for an Instagram post in which he compared himself — looking in fine fettle after almost 30 years of marijuana consumption — to a decidedly unhealthy looking Paul Gascoigne, whose similarly lengthy relationship with alcohol appears to have taken its toll.

Though I wouldn’t praise Mr Dogg for singling out someone who has clearly struggled with addiction, he nevertheless has a point. In 2017, there were over 7,000 alcohol-specific deaths in Britain, where the drug is taxed, advertised and used as a prop by politicians on the campaign trail.

Yet cannabis – not only far less dangerous but proven to be effective in treating chronic pain, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and much besides — remains an illegal substance.

The reason for this striking asymmetry, prevalent in many countries globally, is the subject of Box Brown’s graphic novel Cannabis: An American History. In it, the cartoonist documents the transformation of this remarkable plant, used recreationally and medicinally for thousands of years, into a harbinger of violence, crime and social decay.

Central to Brown’s narrative is a US bureaucrat by the name of Harry J Aslinger, Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Having failed to get his flagship Uniform Drug Act through Congress, he readily indulged in the racist myths regarding Mexican immigrants and their marijuana-induced sexual violence in order to win congressional votes.

It worked. Moral panic at “reefer madness” —  a completely unsubstantiated phenomenon — swept the nation. Congress prohibited its use and the UN ratified the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs in 1961, with the aim of eliminating all illegal substances within 50 years.

The so-called War on (some) Drugs had begun in earnest and the rest, as they say, is history. A consequence is that if you are from a minority group in the US today, you are up to eight times more likely to be arrested for violating cannabis laws.

And, though it ignores the progress made by more enlightened states such as Washington, Colorado or Vermont to fully legalise the herb, Box Brown’s engaging history reminds us — as if we needed any assistance  — of the States’ blazing idiocy.

Cannabis: An American History is published by SelfMadeHero, price £14.99